This application discloses an invention which is related, generally and in various embodiments, to a system and method for determining a location and a status of an asset.
In the health care industry, in order to realize high quality patient care, it is important to have the appropriate medical equipment in the appropriate place, at the appropriate time and in the appropriate condition. In the hospital environment, the tasks of locating the equipment and determining the status of the equipment are typically performed by hospital personnel. The hospital personnel generally walk throughout the entire facility, including patient rooms, to determine the respective locations of various types of medical equipment. Additionally, the hospital personnel are often utilized to determine the status of the equipment. For example, after locating a given piece of medical equipment, the personnel may determine whether or not the equipment is in use, and if the equipment is not in use, whether or not the equipment is available for use.
The manual process of locating and determining the status of medical equipment is relatively expensive and inefficient, and medical equipment is regularly lost, stolen, hidden, or not serviced when required. Due to the nature of the manual process, status data regarding the medical equipment is usually collected only once per day, and thus the accuracy, timeliness, and value of the status data is severely limited. The manual process can compromise patient privacy and can contribute to the spread of infections throughout the environment.